What gets ya into horses?

I have been thinking lately about my journey with horses.

I was attracted to horses for a lot of the same reasons that drew me to ballet. The sense of freedom, flying, joy and coming outside of my shell. I mostly do love being "out there"--how LBE is that!! Dance: Performing, big jumps, partnering with huge lifts--yahoo. Just a bit of danger and lots of excitement. So-- horses: cantering, bareback, bridleless--again the sense of being free, joy of movement and knowing the possibility of danger. The advantage of horsemanship over ballet right now is I have chronic dance injuries that are painful that are not an issue riding or with most things On Line or Liberty.

There is a flip side to all this and that is fear. i.e. I am afraid of falling--I was afraid of falling with ballet also. I fell last week--well, emergency dismount anyway--pony slipped in the mucky, slippery footing. No harm to me or the pony. I think I am actually pretty cautious--taking chances with someone around and with guidance that the chance is appropriate for me. But I also know I hold myself back at times because of fear. For example I feel fear and won't push when my hugely confident LBI Try gets afraid.

Another aspect I have been considering is the whole emotional fitness thing and I think I have made some good strides here if I remember back to level 1 and drilling Try on the 7 games. She hated it and was so clever at passive aggressive sabotage (opposition reflex!). When horsenality information came out this was so incredible to understanding a high spirit LBI on the cusp of LBE with situational RBE! It changed our relationship--decreasing frustration and my learning not to be emotional about much of anything. "How interesting" is really where its at and I see more calm and less drama queen from my LBE self.

Another reason I got into horses as well as ballet was connection and closeness to another being. My ballet career consisted largely of partnering--lifts, turns, etc--with enormoud amounts of rehearsal time. Through the process often there was an openness to each other and closeness, trust, kinship, connection, if you will. And isn't this true of our Parelli journey as well? Although Try isn't looking for leadership and closeness from humans or horses, when both of us have our boundaries down and are sticking together, not only physically, but fully, that is the dream come true.

Another benefit shared with ballet is closeness to a group or mentoring--the play day group, sharing with individuals, encouraging each other.

This is a departure from the usual diary of what we did today. Because I will have the blog printed into book form later, I really would like these thoughts preserved for future consideration.

I thought today would be a wash weather wise but better so went out and had a nice ride on Spidey--we are getting to know each other better. did the usual plus some sitting trot for my "michael jackson" posture.
Then Try and I went for a long walk on line down to the neighboring cattle farm--just relaxed, no pressure.